This calendar of saints is drawn from several denominations, sects, and traditions. Although it will no longer be updated daily, the index on the right will guide visitors to a saint celebrated on any day they choose. Additional saints will be added as they present themselves to Major.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

January 8 - Blessed Edward Waterson

Off by one: Yet again, I seem to have been misinformed. Blessed Edward was executed on January 7, and so that is apparently his real feast.

One easy conclusion from the lives of many saints is that if you want to stay alive, don't put too much of a premium on your religious identity. Edward Waterson was a young sixteenth century English merchant. Traveling with other merchants in Turkey, Edward was befriended by a wealthy Turk who offered his daughter in marriage if the young Englishman would convert to Islam. I'd like to think the girl was tempting; it would make the story better, but the account I have doesn't really say one way or the other.

Anyway, Edward declined the offer and eventually headed back home, stopping first in Rome. There, he contemplated his Christianity a little more and converted to Catholicism. It's a pity he didn't meet a Patriarch in the East somewhere; his fellow countrymen probably would have been less threatened by an Orthodox Englishman than a Catholic one. But he was ordained in Rome, and since Catholic priesthood was a capital crime in England under Her Majesty Elizabeth Regina Prima, he was sent to prison, abused, and beheaded.